Offering a fresh perspective on American art from the first half of the twentieth century, this elegant book presents approximately two hundred paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and photographs by artists such as Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ben Shahn, Paul Strand, and Grant Wood. Works by other well-known and less-familiar artists are also included, each with an individual commentary. All the works are reproduced in stunning full-color and duotone plates. The history of American art has been told almost exclusively by American writers. This new book, written mainly by French scholars, brings a new point of view to the painting, sculpture, graphic arts, and photography of the period, which begins with the scandals of the Eight and the Armory Show and ends with the advent of Abstract Expressionism. How did artists as diverse as Arthur Dove, Jacob Lawrence, and finally Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman struggle with the opposing notions of what it was to be an American artist and what it was to be part of the international history of modern art? The artists who succeeded were those who found ways to reconcile these issues, and who understood that the twentieth century was the century of Americanism. Beginning with the realist tradition, this lavish book looks at the different manifestations of the period's various movements and schools in the United States, ultimately offering a unique look at American art -- from outside America.
|
